Of all the elders, Daniel Steinmetz seemed to me most steadily worth hearing in the prayer and missionary meeting. Steinmetz always had ideas. He was a Bible student and knew how to present a thought with admirable clearness and close practical adaptation to every day life. He was an intense, ardent patriot, and a useful man in both private and public life. He was one of that noble stock of cultured Pennsylvania Germans that has so enriched our national inheritance.
Rudolph Schiller Walton was for many years my Sunday School teacher to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, though when I grew up and could think for myself and read the Bible in the original tongues and draw upon the resources of scholarship, I frankly disagreed with him upon some questions of church policy and the attitude of Christians toward that critical scholarship which produced under Luther and Calvin one great Reformation, and is yet to produce, by God's blessing and purpose, a still greater one. Foreseeing easily in the early eighties what many Presbyterian laymen could not then see, that before many years the substance of the truth, as held in cumulative unanimity by scholars, would be accepted by the Presbyterian Church as it has been in these years 1902 and 1903, I could afford to wait until we should see eye to eye. I knew him first as a teacher of a large class of unusually wriggly and often badly behaved boys. They were such real boys that I, with a touch of Pharasaism, believed them to be much worse, in every way, than those who made up our class, which, for a time, was taught by Mr. Charles Painter, a bookbinder.
When Mr. Walton in 1860, took his class out of the main school room into the separate southwest corner room, I entered as one of his scholars.
In the afternoons we went through Old Testament history getting pretty well through the period covered by the Book of Kings and Chronicles. To this hour these parts of Holy Scripture are as vivid to me as Durer's pictures, because of Rudolph S. Walton's teaching. We studied the Bible itself, and not lesson helps. One reason to-day why there is such a gulf between the Sunday School and the pulpit, and why the average scholar and even teacher is so apt to be scared at the "higher criticism"—even if indeed he knows what it is—is because he is fed, not on the Divine Word itself, but on those dilutions of it, and those plates of hash called lesson helps. Instead of the pure milk and meat of the Gospel, even the teachers stuff themselves with pre-digested food and machine-prepared aliment of all sorts.
For years while Mr. Walton lived, I often dropped in at Wanamaker's Grand Depot at Thirteenth and Market (1876-1896), when in Philadelphia, and always enjoyed his pleasant welcome and a handshake. He sold hats for a living, but his calling was to serve Christ. If ever a man loved his fellow men and wanted to do them good, it was Rudolph S. Walton. As a benefactor, dispenser of cheer and sunshine, helper of all good causes, and a citizen of renown, his name will live. He died in 1902, at the age of seventy-four, leaving his fortune to help his fellow men.
Mr. Thomas P. Dill was hard of hearing, but his spiritual hearing was like that of Samuel or Paul. He was very tender hearted, ever faithful and true, making every talent that he possessed, whether one or more, tell to the glory of his Master. He seemed never to weary in following me up, cheering and encouraging me, expressing his personal appreciation, and joining also with me in sounding the praises of "our pastor" and the dear old church. Whether I went to college at New Brunswick, or came back from Japan to live in New York, or preached the Gospel at Schenectady or in Boston, "Brother Dill", who was a commercial traveller, always sought me out to bring sunshine and delightful chatty news from the old bee-hive in Philadelphia.
Edward S. Lawyer was a man of God and the loving servant of his fellow church members, and I recall his sunshiny presence. He seemed always so buoyant in spirit, so young in his feelings, so active in his sympathies, that it was long before I could think of him as an "elder". Of him I have the pleasantest associations. Besides passing the money box in making the usual collections on Sundays, he was always active, nimble, and ready to help his pastor. As the years increased, he seemed to grow in divine grace and in all winning human graces.
Of John C. Hunter, modesty forbids me to speak at length, as he was my uncle, having married Miss Sarah Clark, who in the thirties had accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Chambers on their visit to Ohio, establishing a union Sunday School at Mount Pleasant, the first in the place. With his wife, Mr. Hunter became deeply interested in Chambers Church. A man of wealth and generous in his gifts, besides being very devout and of simple and unaffected piety, he was a valuable addition to the board of elders and among the trustees. The son of John C. Hunter, named after the senior elder, Aaron Burtis, entered the Episcopal ministry, and is now, as he has been for years, the efficient principal of St. Augustine's School, at Raleigh, N. C., the director and manager of this industrial and religious settlement which is doing so much to elevate the negroes.
Of Fred. J. Buck (one of that great family that came from Bucksport, Me., one of whom I knew as a professor of Sanscrit and another as the United States Minister to Japan) I have also pleasant recollections, as of a family physician, and of a friendship extending through many years, as well as of fraternal participation in the life of the church. He was a cultivated gentleman and an able physician, as well as helpful elder.
Of Robert H. Hinckley, Jr., who I believe at this writing is the only surviving presbyter of the college of elders, I have memories going back to the time when we were both boys in the Sunday School, where he was noted always for his punctuality, activity, and willingness to serve. Of the depth and tenacity of his friendships, of his varied abilities, of his untiring service as a practical worker in the Master's vineyard, of his wisdom in council, propriety forbids me to speak in other than very general terms. After a friendship of fifty years, we both agree, as fellow alumni of Chambers Church, in our high estimate of the great preacher.